The Warren County prosecutor said Thursday his office has opened an investigation into allegations the Franklin City Schools District used school resources to engage in impermissible political activities.

Prosecutor David Fornshell announced the investigation two days after Franklin Superintendent Arnol Elam sent a letter home to parents of the district’s 2,924 students urging them to join him “in an active campaign to ensure Gov. (John) Kasich and any legislator who supports him are not re-elected.” The letter also was posted on the school’s website, but an edited version appeared late Thursday afternoon with that statement deleted.

The superintendent said the letter was not intended to be political, though he could see how some might take it that way.

Yes, because there’s nothing political about sending kids home with a letter that urges parents to join in an “active campaign” against Kasich and legislators.

Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern said in a statement, “It’s convenient Governor Kasich can call upon his contributors to launch a politically motivated witch hunt against those that have the nerve to speak out against the governor’s plan to decimate school funding to pay for a handout to the wealthy. It sends a disturbing message to the people of Ohio that Kasich’s friends might abuse government resources to punish this Superintendent who is simply standing up for local school funding that the governor has stripped away.”

It’s getting pretty deep over at ODP headquarters. A school superintendent misuses school resources and enlists kids in an attempted illegal political campaign, but Redfern is actually claiming that its the prosecutor who is abusing his office. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised. We’ve told you over and over that Ohio Democrats think the rules just don’t apply to them.

Under Governor Kasich’s new school funding plan Ohio’s low-wealth and urban school districts receive more state aid than high wealth districts both as a portion of Ohio’s overall formula funding and also on a per-pupil basis. In fiscal year 2014, Ohio’s lowest-wealth districts would receive 155 precent of the state average per-pupil and 400 percent more than the highest-wealth districts. Ohio’s wealthiest school district by property value would receive just $110 per-pupil, while Ohio’s poorest district, Trumble Local in Athens County, would receive $7,678 per pupil in state aid.

$7,678 – that’s more per pupil than the 28 richest school districts – combined.

Share this:

Related

I was born and raised in Ohio. After growing up in the Columbus area, I moved to Cleveland to study at Case Western Reserve University, and have lived in Northeast Ohio ever since. I live in Wellington with my wife and son. I work in the private sector and have never worked in the political field.

Welcome to 3BP!

Have a tip? Interested in posting on 3BP? Drop us an email at thirdbasepolitics @ gmail.com (remove the spaces)

Third Base Politics is an Ohio-centric conservative blog that has been featured at Hot Air, National Review, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Michelle Malkin, and Ace of Spades, among others.